SIT DOWN, HAVE A DRINK, RELAX.

QLD. ELECTION 2017

Today Qld goes to the polls to decide who will lead the great state for the first time, next 4 years .

It will be a tight race and many variables will come into play. Qld has reintroduced compulsory preferential voting for this election which at the time was widely tipped to help labor. One Nation whom are rightly regarded as rabid right wing ratbags by many never the less cannot be ignored. They have a strong following in rural and north Qld and could well be a thorn in the side to the major parties. Katters mob will also be in the mix.

It will be a closely run election but for what it’s worth I am tipping a labor win with a very small overall majority governing in their own right.

Annastasia Palaszczuk has repeatedly said she will not do any deals so a complete victory it will have to be for Labor.

The LNP. won’t win outright.

Nicholls isn’t well liked because of his time as treasurer with Neumans government as well as he is boring as batshit and like all libs. a arrogant tosser.

One nation will probably pick up 2 or 3 seats in north Qld. and out west and the Katters will hang on to their 2 seats.

Should be a interesting day with a celebratory drink after a Labor victory tonight.

The ATO wants us to stop paying tradies in cash because we are allegedly robbing our fellow Australians by doing that.

How about they stop howling about ordinary citizens paying someone cash to fix their taps or mow their lawns and instead decide to do something about the real tax dodgers, the 732 big companies that pay no tax at all.

This media release from the ACTU, includes a link to the whole data base, if you want to pour through a couple of thousand entries.

Cross-party bill signed into law as Malcolm Turnbull accuses Labor of stymying the postal survey

Marriage equality is a “completely non-partisan achievement”, the attorney general, George Brandis, has said, sharing the love after the cross-party bill passed on Thursday.

Marriage equality will come into effect on Saturday, after the governor general, Peter Cosgrove, signed the bill into law on Friday, but the first same-sex weddings cannot occur until 9 January, after the one-month waiting period.

Labor and the Coalition have begun a war of words over taking credit for the reform, with the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, accusing the opposition of stymying the postal survey.

Brandis told ABC Radio: “This is not owned by the Liberal party or the Labor party or any political party, it’s owned by the Australian people.”

The attorney general said the moment the public galleries “exploded spontaneously” was “unforgettable” and marriage equality was “the most consequential” thing he had done as the nation’s first law officer.

Turnbull said the passage of marriage equality was “a joyous occasion”, brought about because Australians had told parliament to “get on with it” through the 62% yes vote in the postal survey.

The prime minister, who originally opposed a plebiscite but committed to it after he rolled Tony Abbott as Liberal leader, trumpeted the fact he had gone to the 2016 election promising to give Australians a say.

“The Labor party, for purely political reasons, did everything to frustrate that,” he said. “We managed to find a way to do that without legislation and it worked magnificently. That’s what gave the momentum.”

Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, accused Turnbull of “desperation” for attacking Labor in a moment of “national joy”.

After all the amendments proposed by conservatives were defeated, marriage equality passed with overwhelming support, with only three Coalition MPs and the independent Bob Katter opposed.

Turnbull said the image of only four MPs opposing marriage equality sent a message of “affirmation for same-sex couples” and young gay people.

Senior conservatives – including former prime minister Abbott, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, the Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, and MPs Kevin Andrews and George Christensen – were absent from the chamber, abstaining from the vote.

Christensen said he did not vote for the bill because he was concerned it “failed to protect religious liberty” and did not vote against it because “I told my electorate I would not vote against their wishes”.

Joyce told the lower house on Thursday he would “never vote against the view of the Australian people”, but he supported the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

“There should also be acknowledgement that absolute victory is absolute tyranny if you don’t take into account some of the views of those who disagree,” he said.

At a doorstop in the Bennelong electorate in Sydney, the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said marriage equality was “a triumph not for parliament but for all the people of Australia”.

He accused Turnbull of hypocrisy for “running around like he is the godfather of marriage equality”.

“That is great that we voted that yesterday, but today is back to work, Malcolm Turnbull,” Shorten said.

“It’s an extraordinary moment in history. It will change us as a country. It will have an impact – we think we don’t have an impact on the world, but what we do ripples out,” she said.

“It feels like this burden has been lifted. Lifted for all of us. And it just reminds you of the sense of fairness of the average Australian, doesn’t it? We are good people and we are sensible people.”

The government wanted it passed last night, because some of the nasties were to come into force on 1 January. It hasn’t passed, debate has been adjourned until the next sitting day. That will be 5 February.

“Transient” is a compilation of the best shots from my storm chasing adventures of summer 2017. Most of the lightning footage was captured in uncompressed raw at 1000 frames per second with our Phantom Flex4K.

I hope Leonie isn’t choking in the smoke that’s billowing off the 8700+ hectare bushfire in the coastal scrub just north across the river from her. The fire was 6000 hectares this morning, at latest reports it was 8700+ and its a fire that picks up in the afternoon.

I was choking last night, but today is much better. Whatever is happening there isn’t affecting this part of town much. I found ash all over the car this morning.

So far 8741 hectares have been burnt and the fire is still going. The fire is said to be ‘contained’.

The RFS worked all night on backburning, to get everything clear ahead of the expected southerly wind change. That change seems to be about to happen now. We are about to have a storm and/or some rain, so that will help, if it falls in the right places.

Here's the thing. Turbull knows that s.44 is not solely about whether pollies are citizens, but whether they are entitled to citizenship, which then must be renounced. Turnbull's outrageous obfuscation is deliberate, which makes me wonder about those LNP members named. #abc730

Turnbull knows he would lose a few MPs if they were to reveal all, and his government would fall. That’s why he allowed his people to treat the whole declaration process as a joke by arrogantly refusing to provide documentation. Don’t tell me there was not stack of collusion involved.

I think the High Court will agree that the Labor pollies in question really did take all treasonable steps possible to renounce dual citizenships if they can provide the paperwork to show when they submitted forms and paid the necessary fees. If that happens Turnbull will be under a lot of pressure. Pyne’s decision to make no referrals to the High Court was only ‘for the time being’, because he and Turnbulll know they just don’t have the numbers to get those referrals. They are obviously waiting for Alexander to return after a triumphal (?) win in Bennelong, then they will intend to crucify as many Labor MPs as they can.

I hope Alexander loses, even if it’s by a whisker, because that loss will totally ruin Fizza’s Christmas.